Luckily Ben Allan, equipped with both a monthly streaming services budget equivalent to the GDP of a medium-sized European nation and a social life more anaemic than a vegan vampire, has already put in the hard yards to save you from hours of scrolling listlessly through the Netflix menu.
Here's his pick of 10 more shows from 2023 worth your time.
Steven Yuen and Ali Wong turn in riveting performances in this dramedy about two Asian-American strangers at opposite ends of the socioeconomic spectrum who become randomly entangled after a road rage incident. Each deeply frustrated in different ways in their own lives, they end up channelling all their impotence and rage into their initially petty dispute, which escalates to the point where it virtually consumes them both. One of those shows where you'll find yourself saying "Oh God no, what are you DOING?!" out loud to your television.
Adapted from Hugh Howey’s hit sci-fi novels, Silo has a killer hook: 10,000 people are living in a self-sustaining underground facility with virtually no knowledge of the world that came before it, knowing only that anyone who goes outside will die. On top of this tasty mystery is dropped another, as engineer Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson, doing steely determination) reluctantly takes the position of silo sheriff to look into the fate of her predecessor in the role. Things slow down a bit after the fantastic third episode, but the world-building and intrigue will keep you going until the action ramps again towards the striking season-ending shot, which everyone who read the books was just waiting for.
Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne make for a winning combination in this frequently hilarious comedy about college buddies Will and Sylvia, who come back into each other's orbit later in life. The (bad, ignore it) title makes it seem like this is going to be a will-they, won't-they sort of thing, but it's not — it's about how friendships change and stay the same, feeling nostalgic for your hedonistic youth and navigating the disappointments of middle age.
Anchored by Natasha Lyonne’s whole vibe — which can really only be described as, well, Natasha Lyonnesque — this knowingly throwback show stars Lyonne as Charlie, a woman with an innate ability to detect lying who ends up on the lam and drifting through small towns, running into murders-of-the-week. The twist in the format is that the show invariably plays out the murder out for us at the start of each episode, so the questions each week are not " whodunit" or why so much as "what will their slip-up to Charlie be?" and "How will she bring them to justice?" Delightful and ever so clever.
Amid all the fuss over the end of Succession, you may have missed another all time great show finishing up. In its final season, Bill Hader’s virtuoso comedy (Hader co-writes, directs, and stars), about a disillusioned hitman who decides to get into acting, continued its trend of getting darker as it went on, as consequences landed heavily (so heavily!) on all of its characters. Yet, retaining its ability to turn on a dime, it also offered some of the funniest scenes all year — and just for good measure, threw in more of Hader’s incredibly filmed set pieces. We also got near-perfect exits for all of its characters, including Anthony Carrigan’s NoHo Hank, one of the best to ever exist. Imagine me making that ‘‘chef’s kiss’’ noise right now.
I don't know if I’ve had more plain fun with TV this year than with this historical action crime drama, which takes Bruce Lee's idea for a TV show and, uh, makes a TV show out of it. Set in 1870s’ San Francisco, it follows Ah Sahm (played by Andrew Koji, whose looks and handy ability with kicking a face make him highly reminiscent of Lee himself), a Chinese immigrant who steps off the boat and straight into the city's gang wars, labour disputes, and anti-Chinese sentiment, and proceeds to satisfyingly kick the snot out of some old-timey racists. Sprinkled with magnetic characters, it also offers the best fight scenes on TV (not for the squeamish!), and this year's season 3 built to a huge shake-up of the show’s status quo. If they don't make another season, I may burn down a building.
My but The Bear is good. The hottest new show of 2022 just got even better in season 2, as talented chef Carmy (Jeremy Allen White, smashing it) and his family, both immediate and found, work to remodel his late brother’s Chicago sandwich joint into something much fancier. Episode 6, a flashback to a family Christmas from hell featuring an absolute murderer’s row of acting talent (people are clearly lining up to be in this show), is television tenser than that last 10 against Ireland at the World Cup, except it goes for 66 minutes. Funny, human, gripping, magnificent.
Here’s the thing: I hate reality TV. But this show —in which an average guy, Ronald Gladden, is told he is participating in a documentary series about the American jury process, but is in fact the only non-actor in a trial which is being staged entirely for his benefit — won me over. Just the process of the entire thing is incredible, and much hilarity ensues, but the show succeeds so winningly largely because Ronald turns out to be such an unfailingly good dude. The actor James Marsden’s season-long performance as ‘‘himself’’ must be seen to be believed.
Another thing I hate is having to hand it to Australians, but murder-mystery series Deadloch — in which men start turning up dead in a quiet Tasmanian town that’s experiencing a culture clash between its traditional Australian rural blokeism and a new wave of woke feminist lesbian residents seeking ‘‘lifestyle’’ — contained many of the funniest lines all year. Luckily Madeleine Sami flies a flag for New Zealand here too as Eddie, a deeply irritating detective flown in from Darwin to help local police sergeant Dulcie (Kate Box, excellent) with the case. Keenly observed characters, sharp satire, and a good whodunit too.
Bob Odenkirk’s first post Better Call Saul project, about an English professor at a middling university in Pennsylvania, is basically a show about resentment; between work colleagues, between parents and kids, within a marriage, towards the decision-makers that rule us. Odenkirk is in marvellously cantankerous form as Hank, burrowed deeeeeep into the rut of his life and loathing it, while simultaneously unable to contemplate ever trying to get out of it. Relatable much?
Honourable mentions: Gen V (Prime), Mrs Davis, The Great (season 3) (Neon); The Big Door Prize, Shrinking, (AppleTV+); Party Down (season 3), From (season 2), Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (season 2) (TVNZ+); Only Murders in the Building (season 3), The Mandalorian (season 3) (Disney+); Fall of the House of Usher, Blue Eye Samurai (Netflix).
